Posted tagged ‘American exceptionalism’

Some think the Occupy movement is full of a bunch of no-good-lazy-bums that have decided they don’t want to work. Or shower. Or do anything. Quite fairly, these critics argue that if the protesters only had the same networks of support, opportunities to succeed, and luck that they had, there wouldn’t need to be a movement.

Oh wait, they don’t argue that at all! Disregarding their lucky breaks, these critics still reckon they got where they are solely because of hard work, and if the protesters just got out of their tent and rolled up their sleeves, they could have the same. Well, unfortunately, that’s not the case, and that’s why people are upset. There are some protesters that aren’t employed, but a lot of the Occupy protesters do have jobs. Either way, they’ve seen what can happen, and they aren’t happy about it. They are raising issues that people ignore until it suddenly becomes their problem.

As George Carlin said: “it’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

And these aren’t issues that have just popped out of the blue. There are some pretty deep historical roots to the movement, from their non-violent tactics, to grievances that have been building – not just since 2008, but for decades.

Let’s go back to a world called the 1980s, and see what was happening then…